Miss Brooks Has Class

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Traditions Knitted in Modern Day

Looking back over this week, it is interesting to see how the past crept in to share its insights with today's fast-paced modern world.

FRENCH

Madame Julie made her monthly visit to our classroom to discuss French culture and traditions which are also closely linked to our own Catholic traditions.

This month was about Lent (le Carême) and the chance to participate in the flippin' fantastic, get-your-body-moving, fun to do and watch tradition of pancake flipping. The tradition is said to have originated in 1445 when a housewife from England, was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. She raced out of the house to church while still carrying her frying pan and pancake, tossing it to prevent it from burning.

MATH

Traditionally, students in Gr 1 are relegated to using iPad apps if they want to use technology in their classrooms and have to wait until Gr 3 before learning to log into a Chromebook and activating their mytools2go accounts. That is, unless their teacher asks the simple question, "why?" and the modern world collides into a math lesson with some help from the Gr 6 buddies.

Look, Mom! No desks, no paper, no worries!

Can a Gr 1 manipulate the touchpad to create 2-D shapes on a Chromebook? Why not?

The "big buddies" were responsible for telling the little ones where to click and showing them how to insert and make shapes using Google Drawings. So many smiles, looks of awe and shouts of delight were heard throughout the fastest math hour in history!

The computer knows it's me!

WINTER WEAR

Although it hasn't been the coldest of winters this year, St Bernard had been gifted with a donation of many hand-knit scarves, toques and mitts and this seemed the time to roll them out and let the kids go shopping! Honestly, who knits anymore? So much time and money! Ahh...but the quality and designs were as wonderful and various as the children themselves.

Modelling the Women of Solidarity Towers winter wear line

We are so grateful to the Women of Solidarity Towers for thinking of us and for taking the time to lovingly knit such quality items that we will treasure.

So we learned that we can keep our eyes fixed on all the surprises that the future may hold but glances into the past certainly capture our attention and remind us not to "throw the baby out with the bath water"!

~Miss Brooks

Thursday, January 14, 2016

We Like to Move It, Move It

Making numbers from thousandths to millions

Although this week was a short one due to a PA Day on Friday, we were moving and grooving!

Numeracy:

We are learning to read and write whole numbers up to the millions and to multiply numbers (even with decimals!) by 10, 100, 1000. To get the kids to visualize how the number grows when multiplying, they took turns coming to the front and arranging themselves into the number that I said aloud. Before the number holders could move, the kids that remained at their desks wrote the number on individual white boards. On "GO!", they moved and the kids at the desks checked their answers against them.

We later introduced the decimal (a favourite card to get to hold!) and started by forming the number, then multiplying by 10, 100, 1000.

With some too cold days resulting in lack of outdoor recesses this week, this was a little like "mathercise"!

Science:

Does static electricity have enough power to move objects? We began a unit on Electricity this week and had the opportunity to try two experiments using simple, dollar store items to generate static electricity.

Cheerio "pendulum"

First, the students charged a plastic comb, bringing it close to a Cheerio hanging from a string to see what would happen. It was interesting to watch some of the students become curious scientists, looking for other objects to "charge" (rub on the carpet or fleece sweaters) to see if the Cheerio would behave in a similar fashion.

Comb vs balloon in the pop can race

The next class, we has a pop can race without touching the cans or modifying them in any way! Using charged balloons required a lot of head rubbing and hair on end! Would the size of the balloon or the size of the can affect the outcome? Could a comb work? Does the amount of time "charging" affect the race? Visit our YouTube channel to see the races!

Not only did we generate some electricity this week but also some NOISE (learning IS noisy work)! It's a good thing we're in our own little corner of the school or we may have ended up with some enemies!

~Miss Brooks

Saturday, January 9, 2016

New Beginnings

What's your New Year's resolution? #2016 #selfie

A new year is a time for looking ahead and making some changes. In school, there is no exception from this practice!

After two weeks of rest (?) and excitement, Monday is still a Monday. Some students were late, many were groggy and most were excited to see their friends. Some things don't change when the calendar does! Still, we persevered and began hitting our stride by Tuesday.

The students were encouraged to consider something they would like to learn and something they'd like to do in the early months of 2016. These "resolutions" ranged from becoming a baker to learning a language and were as varied and unique as the students themselves. I look forward to seeing if the students stick to their goals. #GoForIt!

There was no easing in to the first week of the new year!

On Wednesday we had a field trip! We continued with RBC Learn to Skate program at the former Ice Park on Central and Grand Marais. Under the direction of some Brennan Leadership students, 6B was treated to a couple activities as a warm up and one hour on the ice. It is amazing to see the improvement after only two sessions. Certainly some are developing a passion for skating!

Getting our ice legs

Kayla, Tru and Hailey "chill" on ice

On Friday, we joined together with our sister class at St Jules (6V) for mass and pasta lunch. Both schools came together for the second time. We are grateful for all the effort behind the scenes to pull off the logistics of some 500 students being able to come together and share a meal!

Rex making some new friends during a lunch of pasta and juice

If this first week is any indication of what 2016 has to offer then I'm sure we're in for an interesting, eventful, faith-filled and educational experience!

~MISS BROOKS

Saturday, December 19, 2015

'Tis the Season

Aidan is best dressed for Wacky Winter Wear Friday!

Do you remember the week before Christmas break when you were a kid? I honestly cannot as maybe all my school memories were deleted in order to make room for the uploading of my teaching experiences.

Which, are probably better. AND are definitely more festive and creative and hot chocolatey!

I began the week trying to maintain some semblance of routine. For the most part, it was successful.

Monday was the last day for our music teacher, Mr Cuckovic, whose first official day of retirement is Dec 19. Or, since that is the weekend, do you say that Monday would be the first day? Or, since it is the Christmas holidays, would Monday, Jan 4 be the first official day? Nonetheless, he will be missed at St Bernard.

We moved into the staff room on Wednesday during Math. Thinking it might make a pretty great classroom since there's a stove, fridge, bathroom and padded chairs.

This week concluded the Mad Minute challenge of 50 multiplication facts in 90 seconds. Lucky for me that Justin was the only lunch winner or I would have become pocket poor! The class has improved their memory and times over the last four weeks with many now completing the challenge in under five minutes and getting all facts correct. I did propose a "Last Chance" quiz on the first day back to see who still remembers their facts after two weeks of no school.

Using Christmas Carols, we reviewed concepts like fractions, ratios (that was new!) and place value. We studied the math in "Deck the Halls", "O Christmas Tree" and, as a shout out to Sebastian, our exchange student from Columbia who's returned home, we also looked at "Feliz Navidad". Some questions included: What is the ratio of Spanish words to English? How do you write that as a fraction? I found this idea on Teacher pay Teachers and thought "Why didn't I think of that?" as I watched the complete engagement and enjoyment of the students.

Chef Madame teaches the kids to bake "pain court" (shortbread) in French!

If you follow us on Twitter, you may have seen the Gr 6 class becoming bakers. There was a feeling and smell of Christmas down in our end of the school this week. The shortbread weren't your ordinary butter cookie but had the scent of mint and vanilla. Definitely an improved aroma in our room! I'm hoping to post a video on our YouTube channel before the New Year!

Coming together for cookies and juice with the Gr 6 class from St Jules

After a Christmas breakfast of sausage, waffles, party potatoes, eggs and juice, the 5/6P and 6B classes were probably ready for a nap....the chefs definitely were! With minutes to spare, we headed to the gym for another Christmas treat!
The gym was packed to capacity on Friday morning as the staff and students of both St Bernard and St Jules were treated to the Wacky Winter Wonder Show. This was the first time that the students had a chance to come together since the twinning of our schools. Special thanks to the "bosses" for this Christmas treat!

As I mentioned in my last post (I think), school is such a great place to be for Christmas! Wishing everyone as joyful a time at home with their real families.

Merry Christmas!
~Miss Brooks

Friday, December 11, 2015

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Is this how it is for the elves?

This past week, the students in 6B were engaged in Christmas learning---and maybe some Christmas traditions---like eating cookies---with green icing!

The week started with taking a look at the Top 10 Grossing Christmas Movies in our Math block. The students guessed which movies made the list (no Home Alone! or Christmas Story!), practiced rounding numbers to the nearest million, created graphs and analysed data. And what are movies (or the discussion of movies) without some popcorn? It helped add a little incentive and interest and Christmas spirit!

Most kids chose a bar graph but one set of partners chose a line graph to see when most of the popular movies were made.

For our Readers' and Writers' Workshops, we read "How Santa Got His Job" by Steven Krensky. This made us think of job applications, which made me think persuasive writing opportunity! The students were given the task to write an essay or letter in which they convinced Santa to hire them as an elf. Reasons ranged from being good with tools to being a potential body guard. No shortage of creativity in these kids! We indulged in cookies and "elf kabobs" (a green grape with a raspberry on a toothpick) this week to get us in an "elfy" way of thinking.

Since we finished that in record time (elf speed?), we've started on planning a trip to the North Pole! Fear not...this is NOT another field trip but a brochure writing assignment. Having access to our Chrome books, we were able to begin searching climate, hotels, restaurants and flights to North Pole, Alaska. The students will work on presenting their findings in an attractive and convincing brochure for a fictional travel agency.